We are in a continual movement toward the Holy Mountain of the Eucharistic
altar. Many churches have been built atop rises and hills to emphasize
the “aboveness” of the Holy God. Amazing things happen
in the scriptures up on top of mountains. We live on the level though
and the Holy “aboveness” of God, while real, is revealed
so that we live holy lives in the “belowness”.

We prepare to approach the Holy and the Holy is always approaching
us. We do not have visions and direct conversations with the Holy
One, but there are sightings and whispers which do lead us through
our “ups” and “downs” of our unlevel ways.

REFLECTION

When I was a young child Sunday afternoons were dedicated to attending
the Liberty Theater in Milwaukee for cowboy movies, cartoons and
of course, coming attractions. These, though we didn’t know
it, were designed to make sure that our Sunday’s obligation
would be fulfilled next week.

There were fantastic visions of beauty and bravado. Promises made
and broken. There were delightful love-encounters which made us
all squirm and laugh and feel good about life. It was all very real
until we had to walk out into the late-afternoon SHADOWS.

The Book of Genesis is a complex collection of stories which lead
the reader to an understanding of how Israel depicted its history
and beginning identity as God’s Holy People. We hear in today’s
First Reading, a foundational experience for that history. Fertility
of body and land is the determinal blessing from God. Infertility
would be a sign of God’s displeasure.

Abram has no son and wonders how his name and family will continue.
Will he ever have a legitimate son of his own flesh? What we hear
is the conversation between God and Abram about this matter. Descendants
will be plentiful and Abram does put his trust in the promise and
the Promise-Maker. This is a tremendous area, this fertility, and
Abram trusts.

This act of faith sets up the conditions for an important display
or revelation by God. A covenant, or bonding contract, will be made
by God. Both parties agree and walking between two parts of a slaughtered
bull or ox would be like shaking hands. Well, even more so, each
party states by this walking that if either breaks the contract,
what happens to the animal should be done to the violator. The covenant
is made by the more powerful to the less and is usually based on
the awareness that the more powerful has been abundantly benevolent
in the past and plans to continue. A promise for that future is
made to Abram and it will be an abundance of land. So land and descendants
predicting fertility are the beginning of Israel’s relationship
with their mysterious God. Abram has to believe that what he has
seen and heard is real.

Now for the Coming Attractions. Luke’s Gospel has presented
Jesus as speaking to the disciples about how following Him will
involve suffering. Then Jesus takes three of His followers up a
mountain and while there, is “transfigured” or seen
differently. It is quite a light-show complete with sound effects.
More dazzling than His brightness was the state of His disciples
after Jesus comes back to their senses. There are important elements
offered by Luke to his readers about Jesus and discipleship during
this experience. They have to do with “coming attractions”
in the life of Jesus and the lives of His followers. Moses and Elijah
are pictured as speaking to Jesus of “His exodus”. This
“exodus” of Jesus will be His living out the Paschal
mission of being the Lamb to be slain.

The disciples would rather build three tents of gratitude as in
the traditional celebration of Sukkot or Booths.
Jesus is presented on this particular mountain as being in His glory.
What is the “coming attraction” will be on another hill’s
top and in a definite, but different manner, it will be even a greater
scene of glory. It will be a “figuration” which will
claim God’s people again from slavery to freedom and service.

There is an increasing sense in the more affluent countries of
the world, of “entitlement”. The disciples have this
sense of requesting selfish possession of Jesus’ glory and
truth. Jesus heads them back down the mountain, inviting them to
put aside, again, their self-preoccupation. Entitlement flows from
a sense that we deserve only the glorious, intimate experiences
of relationships and full meaning. Our wealth can provide many things,
so much so, that we can begin to believe that we actually deserve
everything. We should have power, health, ease, first-places at
the head of lines. Life is owed to us and at the highest experiences.
It is natural to desire this, but to expect it, demand it from God
and others is not relational. The “exodus” referred
to by Moses and Elijah moves Christ’s followers off their
mountains of entitlement to the acceptance of their actual “titlement”
as followers who will suffer with and for Him.

Jesus’ coming down that mountain and heading for Jerusalem
is the invitation to us to not take the Jerusalem bypass, but live
with and through our own experiences of exodus. We are “titled”
Human, Beloved, Called, Sent in and with Him. These titles entitle
us to all the graces of God’s love as we walk His walk into
our final transglorification with Him.

The disciples walked out of their own Liberty Theater having participated
in quite a show. They, like myself as a little boy, had to face
the real. As the movie might have inspired me to be more brave,
loving, and quick on the draw, the disciples were encouraged to
live more closely with the Master and more faithfully as receivers
of His call to follow.